A Librarian's World | From Manuscript to Memory: Spells, Stories, and Semangat in the Malay Literary Tradition
About the event
Magic has long animated the Malay literary imagination. It appears in mantera recited for healing and protection, in the supernatural trials of hikayat heroes, and in stories of spirits inhabiting forests, seas, and rice fields. Yet these traditions are more than tales of the unseen. Preserved in manuscripts, folktales, oral traditions, colonial accounts, and modern literature, they offer glimpses into how generations of Malays understood health, nature, danger, and everyday life. What can ideas such as semangat and the power of words tell us about the relationship between the visible and unseen worlds? And how have these beliefs endured and transformed through cultural exchange, religious change, and modernisation? Through highlights from the collections of the National Library and Archives, discover how Malay stories of magic preserve a rich and evolving way of knowing, and what they can reveal about heritage, memory, and identity today.
About the Speaker
Afiqah Halim is a librarian with the National Library of Singapore’s Arts Team, where she manages the Malay-language collection. Her research interests centre on Malay heritage and cultural memory, particularly through manuscripts, folklore, pantang larang and traditional beliefs.
